Fight the Good Fight of the Faith: The Christian Ministry Is Not for the Faint of Heart

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Well, we know that what we just saying is true, that time is like an ever rolling stream that bears all its sons away. It’s humbling thought. And by the way, we have to condition that by clear scriptural truth and that is that there will be a time when time is no more. But so long as we are in this earthly life, time does roll along. It’s good in fitting that we find our place in that stream and flow of time. This is a very important moment in history in church history. This comes at a very strategic moment in global history. It intersects with various other histories as a moment in time and that ever rolling stream of time, first of all in the perspective of world history. This particular event as we’re meeting here today comes in the context of war, comes in the context of tumult comes after centuries of the experience of war in tumult, in the flow of church history. We understand that even as these graduates are so gloriously arrayed before us, they’re the promise of service and ministry to the church of the Lord Jesus Christ, which is founded upon the prophets and the apostles time. We connect intentionally to that continuity. We want to be a part of that faith once for all delivered to the saints and that long line of faithfulness throughout the history of the Christian Church. The great promise of these graduates arrayed before us today is that reinforcements are coming.

What a glorious thing that is. This comes in a moment, third of the history of this institution. In moments like this, I wonder what it would be like to go back to the founders of the school and tell them that they would ever see a vision like this. So many decades after they began a work with just a handful of students and four professors, and now you look at what the Lord has done and we ought not to come to a ceremony like this and just assume this happens everywhere. It doesn’t. This is an unprecedented development in the history of the Christian Church and we ought to thank God and we ought to just thank all that the Lord has used and people the Lord has used to bring us to this moment. And then just celebrate again the sight of these graduates knowing that there are so many believers, so many who’ve contributed to the causes of the Southern Baptist Convention.

So many churches who have given to the cooperative program, so many people who have prayed and worked and they never got to see a sight like this, but they gave and they prayed so that someone would, and then last, there’s another history and that’s your history, the history of your family, the history of every one of these graduates, the history of all the relationships that are represented here. And it’s so wonderful to know, as Dr. Ibrahim was praying, all the different nations that are represented here think of all of those histories. How glorious is this? Let’s just pause for a moment to recognize that what we’re looking at right now, what we are doing right now, what we are experiencing right now, this is never going to happen again. That is this crowd will never sit on this lawn in this way again, this is a one time thing.

And how glorious is that of all the days of human history, of all the days of church history, of all the days in the history of this institution. We have the privilege of being here on this day. What a glorious thing that is. It is my joy to speak to these graduates in particular and there’s a sense in which the rest of you are invited to overhear. I want to direct attention to one Timothy chapter six, and I’m just going to read a short section from verses 11 to 16. The apostle Paul writes to Timothy, the Holy Spirit speaks to the church of the Lord Jesus Christ. But as for you, oh man of God, flee these things, pursue righteousness. God bless his faith, love steadfastness gentleness. Fight the good fight of the faith. Take hold of the eternal life to which you were called and about, which you were made the good confession in the presence of many witnesses. I charge you in the presence of God who gives life to all things and of Christ Jesus, who in his testimony before Pontius Pilate made the good confession to keep the commandment unstained and free from reproach until the appearing of our Lord Jesus Christ, which he will display at the proper time. He who is the blessed and only sovereign, the king of kings and Lord of lords, who alone has immortality, who dwells in unapproachable light, whom no one has ever seen or can see to him be honor and eternal dominion. Amen.

I was drawn to this passage thinking about this class on this day. Now I recognize that this comes as just a few verses in a much more substantial argument being made in the form of a letter from the apostle Paul to Timothy, his protege in ministry. And we know we have just interrupted something that’s being conveyed here, a point that’s being made here because at the very beginning of the text we read that Timothy is to flee these things. Well, perhaps we ought to at least give some attention to what these things are from which Timothy is to flee. So look at the text if you have it before you.

We go backwards in one Timothy six where Paul writes beginning in verse three, if anyone teaches a different doctrine and does not agree with the sound words of our Lord Jesus Christ and the teaching that accords with godliness, he’s puffed up with conceit and understands nothing. He has an unhealthy craving for controversy and for quarrels about words which produce envy, dissension, slander, evil suspicions and constant friction among people who are depraved in mind and deprived of the truth. Ingraining imagining that godliness is a means of gain. Now, there is great gain in godliness with contentment for we brought nothing into the world and we cannot take anything out of the world, but if we have food and clothing with these, we will be content. But those who desire to be rich fall into temptation, into a snare, into many senseless and harmful desires that plunge people into ruin and destruction for the love of money is the root of all kinds of evils.

It is through this craving that some have wandered away from the faith and pierced to themselves with many pangs. So when Paul says to Timothy, flee these things, these are the things he’s talking about. And in this short passage that preceded our passage of Maine concern, the apostle Paul begins with those who teach a different doctrine and who do not agree with the sound words of our Lord Jesus Christ. And at the end of this passage, this paragraph, he says, it is through this craving that some have wandered away from the faith and pierced themselves with many pangs on this occasion. This is in so many ways, just a last word to these graduates and they’ve received, I don’t know how many words from this institution. I mean it would be humbling to try to quantify how many words have been received, words from professors in classrooms, words from fellow students in conversation words in biblical exposition delivered in chapel words, in more casual conversations just in the hallways, but with an opportunity for a last word or a few last words.

I think it’s quite natural that we’re drawn to the pastoral epistles and in particular to Paul’s letters to Timothy and Titus in this case, Paul’s first letter to Timothy as we know it because this is exactly what Paul is doing. He is speaking to Timothy in a context that’s just remarkably like the context here. It wasn’t a graduation class, but it was ascending out of Timothy into service. And I think it’s really important that the apostle Paul was so clear. There are things from which the minister of Christ must flee. There are sins that are not just those that hinder the ministry that can destroy the ministry.

There are ambitions and motivations that should have nothing to do with Christian service in Christian ministry. I think it’s good. The apostle Paul is so specific to Timothy and saying, flee these things. It’s a reminder that prosperity theology is not a new problem. It’s a reminder that the temptation to heresy is not a new problem. It’s a reminder that the tendency to depart from the faith once for all delivered to the saints is not a new problem. It it’s important for us to recognize that Paul’s exhortation to Timothy is exactly the Holy Spirit’s exhortation to us and thus by the authority of the word of God, my exhortation to you. I think the clear dichotomy is very helpful for us to see because we have the dichotomy of the false teachers versus the ministers of Christ. We have the clear distinction between false teaching and the preaching of the gospel of Jesus Christ.

In the Bible, we find so many distinctions, distinctions between the sheep and wolves distinctions between shepherds and predators. I’m so thankful that as I look at this graduating class of the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, I am looking out at shepherds not at wolves and what a glorious thing that is. But how good is it that we are reminded, reminded that the apostle Paul needed to write this to Timothy, but then we come to verse 11, but as for you, and this is why this is the main portion of the biblical text for today, but as for you, and that’s where I turn to this class and say, but as for you, the apostle Paul goes on to say, of course flee these things, but then he continues pursue righteousness, godliness, faith, love, steadfastness, gentleness. There are things we must flee, but there are things we must clinging to indeed pursue.

The word pursue is a pretty active verb, and this is for Timothy’s lifetime. It’s not just for a course in the beginning, it’s not just in the middle. It’s all the way to the end. We are to begin our ministry pursuing these things and we are to end our ministry to the glory of God pursuing these things. And it’s so clear. Righteousness, godliness, faith, love, stead fat, fatness, gentleness. Isn’t it interesting that gentleness is in there, but after all, we’re speaking of shepherds and sheep and so it’s very interesting. There is this twofold kind of sense you find in this passage because gentleness is the last word of verse 11, but the first word of verse 12 is fight.

And isn’t that the predicament of the shepherd? The shepherd has to speak and move and lead lovingly his sheep, but he has a staff for a reason. There are those who would pray upon the sheep, fight the good fight of the faith, take hold of the eternal life to which you were called and about, which you made the good confession in the presence of many witnesses. Fight the good fight of faith. No, no. The text is clear. Fight the good fight of the faith. It’s just so helpful for us to be reminded even in this singular verse of the fact that the faith of the church of the Lord Jesus Christ, the Christian faith is one thing. It is one gospel. It is based upon the authority of one scripture, which is the inerrant and infallible word of God. It is the same faith from the apostles to these graduates today and these graduates, even as they are being sent out to be shepherds and missionaries and servants of the church, they are being sent out today to fight the good fight of the faith.

I’m confident that’s exactly what they will do. Taking hold of the eternal life to which you were called and about, which you made the good confession in the presence of many witnesses. Well, let’s just say you’re doing it again today, alright? Let’s just say that today the graduates of the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary are making that good confession. In our midst. We today are the witnesses of this confession being made anew. And again, as we look at the assignment given to the minister of the gospel here in the pastoral epistles, so we understand the words we are to flee some things, we are to pursue other things. We are to guard and exercise gentleness towards some, and yet in another context, we are to be ready to fight.

Just a couple things about this passage. First we look at it and we recognize as we fight this good fight of the faith, we are to do so understanding that the gospel has enemies, understanding that the church has enemies, understanding that the sheep have enemies, and yet at the same time understanding that in the tender shepherding of the people of God, it’s not that we’re saying one thing to the church and another thing to the world is that we are speaking the gospel to the church and the church believes it and the world hears the same words and hates it. It’s a good thing. We know that landscape before we go out. It is a good thing. We know that. And all that has been contained in the theological education you have received. All that is symbolized in these diplomas and degrees. It all comes down to strengthening those who will preach the word of God and minister to the church of Christ and take the gospel to the nations to be ready to tend the flock and to fight the fight.

We are to keep the commandment unstained, maintain our love for Christ. You are to hold fast to that what is true, the things which are true. So when Christ calls you to go, you go to feed the flock of God, the pastor, the sheep of Christ, sheep fold to preach the word in season and out of season to tell the old old story of Jesus and his love. But there’s something else here and this is that there’s an eschatological horizon and it’s so sweet because as the apostle Paul writes to Timothy and the apostle Paul, of course is older, Timothy is younger, so young that he is told to let no man despise his youth. Paul and Timothy are at different points of life. And of course Paul will speak to Timothy by the end of the correspondence with Timothy about his life being poured out.

But in this particular passage he says that we are to be looking for the appearing of the Lord Jesus Christ. Look at what the text says until the appearing of our Lord Jesus Christ, which he will display at the proper time. He who is the blessed and only sovereign, the king of kings and Lord of lords, who alone has immortality, who dwells in unapproachable light, whom no one has ever seen or can see to him be glory in eternal dominion. Amen. I chose to focus on these verses because I wanted to end right there because I just want to remind you that even as you are in ministry and many of you have been engaged in ministry and now you are entering a new chapter of ministry, I just want to share with you the really bad news that the Apostle Paul gives to Timothy and that is that you will never get it all done.

You cannot tend the flock of God all the way to the gate of heaven. You are called to preach the word in season and out of season and to care for the flock and fulfill all the callings of ministry, but only Christ can get his church home. And there’s a sense in which we know even as we’re here today that there are an awful lot of bodies buried before you get to us. There are an awful lot of bodies buried of holy men and those who have served to the church and preachers and missionaries and they have been put in a box and thrown in the ground and dirt thrown in their face for centuries.

So much so that we don’t know where most of them are on the day of resurrection. That’s going to be a very interesting alumni meeting. It’s going to be a wonderful thing to see the saints emerge, that how much infinitely greater will be the glory of the appearing of the Lord Jesus Christ described here, the blessed and only sovereign, the king of kings and Lord of lords. And so this is not meant to be humbling in a negative sense. It’s meant to be humbling in a positive sense. We can’t finish what we are assigned. We are called and the apostle Paul is so clear with Timothy. The metaphor is we run a race. We run a race. Someone’s going to have to run the race behind us till Jesus comes. But by God’s grace, someone will run the race behind us until Jesus comes. And that means that between now and the end of your days, you’re to flee the things you are to flee.

Pursue the things you are to pursue, fulfill all of the calling of ministry, do so to the glory of God knowing that someone has handed this mission to you and someone will take it from you by God’s grace until Jesus comes. Now, here’s the other part of that. You actually bear responsibility to make certain that there’s someone to take it from you. The Apostle Paul bore responsibility to raise up a generation of faithful ministers behind him. The preacher has the responsibility to produce preachers because the fields are wide unto harvest. This eschatological horizon reminds us that we’re waiting for a greater glory. We get glimpses of the glory here. We get such a glimpse this morning. You look at these graduates and you just look at this law and it’s an amazing thing. We see the glory of it. Just imagine an infinitely, infinitely greater glory when the Lord Jesus Christ appears and when he claims his saints, it’s in light of that promise that we minister, we go, we live. It’s in the light of that promise. We not only live but we die. It’s in the light of that promise that we observe this commencement. It’s in the light of that promise. We hand diplomas to graduates who have earned them. It’s in that light that we sing hymns of the faith.

It’s in that light that we pray for these graduates. It’s in that light that we do everything that is a part of this service so seriously and so utterly, happily so to the Southern Seminary class of 2024, you bear our hopes. You go with our prayers, you represent our confidence. You are the proof of the investment of saints, of old and the very sight of you is hope for the Lord Jesus Christ. Church, may you go in passion. May you go in confidence. May you go in hope. May you go in love. May you go enjoy. May you go and may you serve until the Lord Jesus Christ brings you home or the Lord Jesus Christ appears in his glory. Either way, it’s good. Let’s pray. Father, we are so thankful for the promise you show us in these graduates for the power of the gospel demonstrated in bringing them here and the power of the gospel in which they now go. Father, we pray that you will show your glory in these graduates, in their churches, in their pulpits, in their ministries, on the mission field. And Father, we just thank you. Thank you for letting us be a part of this and see the glimpse of this. We pray this in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.

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